2020: Goodbye and mostly good riddance

What a crazy year. To be fair it wasn’t all bad. I started it off at a party full of friends. My new years selfie looked gorgeous. I had a huge crush one someone, during that window when the crush makes you giddy. My life was alright and my kid, who is my everything, was pretty happy too.

Then came my crushing workload that never really ended. My crush turned into a sweet and sour memory. And coronavirus showed up ready to destroy the peace and lives of so many people across the globe.

At first, the pandemic did very little harm to us. My parents, who live in other states were safe, I was sent home to work remotely and the kid was sent to finish school at home, but the work was mostly easy and school expectations were lowered.

We are a team of two, and single parenting without nearby family is basically a course in isolation already, so social distancing wasn’t that hard. I did miss visiting friends and going out to eat, but we took a lot of walks, marathoned dramas* and took some isolating trips, to a really nice cabin in the woods and to a quiet coast where we basked in the waves.

I also started teaching myself to cook Korean food since k-dramas made me crave it like crazy and the restaurants around here are really expensive and carry only the most standard fare. The markets have everything I could ask for to make great meals, and I have made some great ones.

The worst thing about the summer was my workload, which was much more than full-time. And also the growing coronavirus case and casualty count, which was extremely depressing to see.

Then school started up for the youngin’, a new one for her. She got into the ivy league of public schools which should have been the greatest gift, but they started up virtually and did not know what they were doing. The kid had 11 (yes 11!) classes and a new online system that was complete chaos and an insane class and homework workload. I was forced to work and act as part-time teacher, tech support and emotional support and it was exhausting.

My child started having anxiety attacks because she had too much work, the teachers didn’t accurately calculate the amount of time things would take to complete, she didn’t know and couldn’t see her classmates and her teachers were too overwhelmed to remember that kids like her were new and struggling to get adapted and fit in.

For a few months, life went to hell in a handbasket.

Luckily we sought help for her anxiety and alerted her teachers, the school improved their virtual schedules and teaching methods and things started getting better.

I have continued to work 40-50-60 hour weeks, but I have at least perfected watching shows as I work, even reading subtitles while I write reports etc. Pretty bad*** right?

And despite the hard times, there has been a lot of smiling and giggling, cuddling, and walks amongst the flowers this year.

And now we will have a president who isn’t a few tools short of a toolbox, which gives me some hope for the new year ahead. So do coronavirus vaccines.

I have mixed feelings about the last year, but I am happy to see it wave goodbye. I look forward to the new year and hope it improves on the one before it, not just for me and my sweet kid, but for you and your families, and everyone everywhere.

Best moments of the year:

• Sitting in the sunlight, next to a waterfall, with my feet in the water, while pink flower blossoms rained down in the breeze.
• Watching and laughing at Reply 1994 with my kid who has been all in on this drama.
• Having a picnic with two very happy kids while the sun sets in bright pink and purple colors behind us.
• A very sweet date that made me smile and laugh and learn new things about the person I was interested in.
• Intertubing on a lazy river during a drizzle.
• Taking car trips to try new things, and eat new food, and bond with my kid, while schooling her on good music along the way.

*The kids favorite dramas that she watched this year are Reply 1994 (Korea), Fake Princess (China) and The Gifted (Thailand), and she loves Gabby and the Untouchables on Disney (America).

Here is a list of my favorite dramas of 2020.

HAPPY NEWS YEARS EVERYONE!